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(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) Neuralink Blindsight

(OCTOBER-2024)

Recently Neuralink received FDA’s breakthrough device tag for ‘Blindsight’ implant.

Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink’s experimental implant aimed at restoring vision received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “breakthrough device” designation.
The FDA’s breakthrough tag is given to certain medical devices that provide treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening conditions. It is aimed at speeding up development and review of devices currently under development.
The experimental device, known as Blindsight, will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see.
Founded in 2016 by Musk and a group of engineers, Neuralink is building a brain chip interface that can be implanted within the skull, which it says could eventually help disabled patients to move and communicate again, and also restore vision.
Neuralink’s device has a chip that processes and transmits neural signals that could be transmitted to devices like a computer or a phone.

A brain computer interface (BCI) is a system that determines functional intent - the desire to change, move, control, or interact with something in your environment - directly from your brain activity. In other words, BCIs allows a person to control an application or a device using only his/her mind.
Using a BCI skips over the need to have voluntary control of your muscles to interact with devices around you. The computer replaces the execution of a physical movement, instead translating your desired action and controlling the device directly.

A brain computer interface has three main parts:

A device to measure brain activity. This is usually in the form of a headset, cap or headband that has specialized sensors embedded in it to detect and record signals coming from the brain.
A computer to process and analyze the recorded brain activity. The BCI software will try to interpret the user’s desired action from the incoming brain activity, using specialized processing methods and algorithms.
An application/device to control. Once the computer has ‘determined’ what the user wants to do, it will send a signal to the application/device to carry out that command.

First brain activity is recorded, then processed to determine the user’s intent, then a command signal is sent to the application that is to be controlled, and finally, feedback lets the user know if their action was successful.

Invasive BCI: Invasive BCIs are implanted directly into the grey matter of the brain during neurosurgery.
Partially-Invasive BCI: Partially invasive BCI devices are implanted inside the skull but rest outside the brain rather than within the grey matter. They produce better resolution signals than non-invasive BCIs where the bone tissue of the cranium deflects and deforms signals and have a lower risk of forming scar-tissue in the brain than fully-invasive BCIs.
Non-Invasive BCI: The easiest and least invasive method is a set of electrodes, this device known as an electroencephalograph (EEG), attached to the scalp. The electrodes can read brain signals.

Bioengineering Applications: Brain-computer interfaces have a great potential for allowing patients with severe neurological disabilities to return to interaction with society through communication and prosthetic devices that control the environment as well as the ability to move within that environment.
Human subject monitoring: Sleep-disorders, neurological diseases, attention, monitoring, and/or overall mental state.
Neuroscience Research: Real-time methods for correlating observable behavior with recorded neural signals.
Man-Machine Interaction: Interface devices between human and computers, Machines.
Military Applications: US military has begun to explore possible applications of BCIs beginning in 2008 to enhance troop performance as well as a possible development by adversaries.
Gaming: Computer game have gone hands-off because of development in BCI.
Counter Terrorism: A possible application is in Counter terrorism where a customs official can scan photos of many hundreds of faces.